Visionary
by Emmeebee
Summary: Some people say that you need to be truly alone before you can find yourself. When Angel is abducted by Erasers, she discovers terrifying powers that she never knew she had. Canon compliant. Starts during the first book but contains spoilers for the last. Three-shot.
1. Visions

The room was almost blindingly white, as if they had decided to make it as monotone as possible. For someone who loved snuggling into cosy places as much as Angel did, its barrenness was smothering. She had thought she was rid of the School, yet there she was, right back where she'd started.

Except worse off because, this time, she was alone.

The scientists didn't care about her outside her use as a research subject. Jeb alone seemed to want to keep her alive for her own sake, but even that could have just been a ploy to make her complacent. Not that they needed her cooperation in the first place; super strong bird kid or not, there was no way she was getting out of there on her own.

Her eyebrows furrowed in frustration. She was used to being able to read people's minds to work out how dangerous a situation was and how to respond to it. It was the ace up her sleeve, the one trick nobody knew she could do. Yet, somehow, Jeb was able to block her out. Was he doing it on purpose? Did it just not work on him? Either way, it made things that much harder for her. If she'd been able to read his mind, she would have known what sort of game he was playing. As it was, she had to rely solely on body language, and it had been so long since she'd had to do it that she didn't trust herself to get it right.

 _Max._ _Max, please hurry._

A string of images suddenly burst into her head. Max fighting. A small black dog yapping away. A large expanse of white snow. Another bird kid, about Max's age. The flock separating. The world burning. New enemies, hybrids she'd never seen before, swarming around them. And Fang –

With a sharp gasp, she clutched at her temples as she instinctively curled in on herself, leaning against the side of her cage for support. The ice cold bars pressed into her side, but she barely noticed. Her arms wrapped around her legs, and she enfolded herself in her beautiful white wings as though they were a cocoon. Her heart ached at the memory of the dreadful images. The flock had had more life-or-death experiences than the average family, but she'd never actually thought that one of them might _die_. She couldn't imagine life without them by her side; it just seemed too final, too foreign. But she couldn't deny what she had seen. How could those horrors happen?

And why? Why was she seeing those things? What did they mean?

Somehow, part of her knew that they were – or would be – real. Not right away, but someday soon, all of those things would come to pass. As unbelievable as it seemed, they weren't just moving pictures like at the movies; they were visions. _Prophecies_ , even. The flock would separate, and the world would burn, and Fang would die.

Unless she could stop them. Perhaps she was seeing them so that she would be able to keep them from ever happening! Why else would they come to her? She had always known that she was special; she was strong and smart and could even read people's minds. If anyone could do it, she could. So why would she be able to see those things unless she was supposed to use the knowledge to change the future?

Once again, she wished she were with her family. She didn't want them to be caged either, but still… Even their mere presence would have been enough to comfort her. Scrunching her eyes shut, she let herself imagine that they were there with her, surrounding her. She could almost feel them, there yet not there, as if they were phantoms. Max, hugging her and babying her before turning with blazing eyes to wipe out anyone who stood in their way. Fang, standing between her and the bad guys to keep them from touching her ever again. Iggy, poising for attack, ready to jump into action at the first hint of movement. Nudge, babbling nervously away but always on the lookout. Gazzy, his mind whirring away as he looked for materials to fashion into a makeshift bomb.

Loneliness hit her afresh, and she whimpered. She could fantasise all she wanted, but the fact remained that she was alone.

Sighing, she tried to tap into Max's mind to see where the others were and how they were going. She didn't know enough about where she was to be able to lead the others to her, but even just a brief conversation would have been something. But, try as she might, she wasn't able to get through to the older girl's mind. Terror rushed through her at the thought that Max might have died, and her wings flexed around her small body in fear.

 _No,_ she thought. If those images were indeed visions, then Max wasn't going to die for a long time yet. Surely the flock was just out of range. Angel had never tried reading minds from a distance before, so she didn't know if she had to be able to see the person for it to work. It was much more likely that she just couldn't reach that far.

Instead, her thoughts returned to the visions. She didn't know if she was meant to make sure they didn't happen or ensure that they did, but they were there or a reason. And _she_ was supposed to do somethingabout it. The problem was that Max would never agree to follow her lead. She would believe Angel, but she would insist on going about things her own way. The fifteen-year-old's mulishness had kept them alive over the years, but it would also keep her from ever agreeing to pass leadership over to someone else. _Especially_ when that person was Angel, whom Max saw as the baby of the family.

That just meant that the six-year-old would have to find another way to get Max to listen to her.

 _Well,_ she thought with no small amount of bitterness, _I have lots of time to work something out._


	2. A Little Test

Angel tried not to cry as the scientists returned her to her cramped little cage. Nightmares of steel bars and stinging needles had plagued her for months after Jeb originally saved them from the School. For a time, she had permanently slept in Max's bed to save her the trouble of having to wake them up every time they hit her. Without Jeb's soothing embraces and Max's murmured promises that none of them would ever again be caged, she might not have made it through that period. And yet there she was, once again at the mercy of the power-hungry organisation.

That would have been distressing enough on its own, but the visions just made things worse. Most of her days were spent being tested like a lab rat, forced to run around a seemingly endless string of mazes so they could study her speed and endurance. Every time they zapped her for running too slow just reminded her that they saw her as subhuman. The rest of them were spent being tortured by visions so dreadful that they turned her stomach.

And sometimes, in a special display of cruelty, they lined up. She would be working her way through the maze and then get hit with a vision – sometimes an old one, sometimes a new one – that would stop her dead on her feet. The resulting zap always made the agony that much worse, as if everything that could go wrong was doing so in the same moment.

 _Why?_ she asked herself over and over again. _Why do I see these things? Why won't they all just go away?_

The night before, she had decided to run her own test. She'd had to dosomething, _anything_ , other than simply following other people's orders. During that day's blood tests, she'd gotten a vision about Jeb coaxing information about her abilities out of her through the bars of her cage. She hadn't known when he would come, or when that vision was supposed to occur, but all she'd had to do as to refuse to tell him anything about it. If she still hadn't said anything about them by the time the flock came to free her, it would have meant that the visions weren't set in stone – and that she might be able to change bigger things as well, things like Fang dying and the world ending.

So, when he'd arrived that very night to talk to her, she'd done her best to hold her tongue. "You can talk to me about anything, Angel," he had cajoled. "Do you remember how we used to stay up late talking about anything you wanted? It'll be just like old times."

"Nothing's just like old times," she had replied. "You're not one of us anymore."

"I know it seems like I abandoned you, but I will _always_ have the flock's best interests at heart. You might not see that at the moment, but I always have and I always will. You can trust me, my angel. You more than anyone."

"I'm Max's angel, not yours," she had retorted. But, over time, he had worn her down. She missed him so very much. Max was wonderful, and she was a good mother to them, but things weren't the same without Jeb around. Jeb had hidden them away from the Erasers and the School, keeping them safe and protected. He had cooked their food and looked after them and given them a chance to be _kids_ for the first time in their lives. He had told them about the dangers that lurked out there too, of course, and had shown them how to defend themselves, but they had been sheltered from the worst of it. Once he'd gone, their protective bubble had come crashing down, leaving them vulnerable to the perils of the outside world.

They were coping, and they were surviving. But that was all they were doing. Angel yearned for the days when she had been able to curl up into Jeb's side, secure in the faith that he would make everything okay. Nothing had seemed too big or scary for him to fix. After all, he had already saved them from the scariest threat of them all.

So she had talked. She had told him about the flock and her ability could read minds. She had told him about how Gazzy and Iggy were as close as ever and Nudge loved fashion and Fang was their anchor and Max was the wind that pushed them all along. She had told him about how terrified being back at the School made her feel. It had been such a relief to just _talk_ to him again, and she had mentioned things she'd never planned to reveal.

Like the visions.

That had been what brought her up short, sending her reeling as she realised what she had done. But it had been too late to take it back. He didn't know everything, but he knew enough; he knew that she had visions and that one showed Fang dying.

She curled up into herself again, encasing herself in the familiar warmth of her wings. It was dark and cosy inside, and that was how she liked it. It blocked the room from view and let her believe, even just for a moment, that she was just crying in her room over something mean Gazzy had said.

The illusion didn't last long. It couldn't, not when her sense of guilt was so strong. The remorse flooded back in with a vengeance. She still didn't know Jeb's loyalties, but she had given him information that he could use against the flock. He knew about Gazzy's and Iggy's continued interest in pyrotechnics and about her newfound abilities. Not even the flock itself knew about her visions yet! That knowledge could help him get through their defences to kidnap the others as well. If he caught them after their conversation, it would be her fault. If he hurt them – if he _killed_ them –

 _Except,_ she hurriedly reassured herself, _the visions are true. Even if he catches them, I know that they won't die until… until it's time. The School won't kill any of us just yet. We'll all make it out to fly again._

That thought sent another sharp pang of pain through her. They would escape, yes, but the visions were _real_. Everything she had seen in them would come to pass.

And that was terrifying.


	3. Taking Action

A/N: To the guest reviewer: Thank you! I tried to mimic his writing style as much as I could, so I'm thrilled that it feels authentic.

* * *

Angel knew what was happening the very first time Max heard the Voice in her head. It had taken everything she had to play ignorant, but the others had been so focused on the older girl that they hadn't noticed her acting shifty. And, over time, it became easier. It still felt dirty to keep quiet about it, but she had to.

The flock had come to rescue her, of course. After coming to the realisation that the visions were real, she'd expected nothing else. But they hadn't gotten there quickly enough. Jeb had put her through a whole new set of tests, tests that not even the other scientists knew about, before visiting her again to tell her about his plan.

It had taken a while, but she had grown to trust him when he said that he was doing what was best for them. Or, at least, to trust his intentions. She could tell that he wasn't telling her everything, and that he wanted to use her abilities to get what _he_ wanted, not what _they_ wanted. And she suspected their end goals were vastly different. But that didn't mean they couldn't work together for the time being. Still, she was trying to hold off on it for as long as possible. Convenient or not, Max would see it as a betrayal of the worst kind if she ever found out about it. That or she would think Jeb had manipulated Angel and lose all faith in the girl's ability to tell truth from lies. Either way, the flock would be horrified by the idea.

And yet she couldn't help but trust him. After all, she knew that he cared about them and that he loved Max more than anything. If there was anyone he would twist the rules and compromise for, it would be her. No matter what Max thought of him, he would never purposefully use the Voice to hurt her.

So she didn't say anything as Jeb started speaking directly into Max's mind. The special tests he had run had isolated the genetic mutations that let her read people's minds. He didn't know enough about them to be able to replicate them, but he had used the information to create a mental connection with Max while she was imprisoned at the School. She wasn't sure how; he hadn't told her. But, for the rest of their lives, Jeb and Max would be irrevocably linked, even if she didn't find out until the very end.

Jeb wanted Angel to use the Voice as well. He was convinced that her visions meant something, that they were supposed to be self-fulfilling. That she was supposed to not only _not_ stop them, but also to actively _cause_ them. He had described it as an instruction manual to their future, telling her that she had to make sure the flock followed it to the letter. None of them had ever bothered reading the instructions, but Angel, as much as she hated it, had to agree with Jeb. Everything in their lives meant something; nothing was 'just a coincidence'. If one of them saw someone acting shady out of the corner of their eye, it meant that something bad was about to happen. That was just the way of their lives. And, while part of her still clung to the hope that she would be able to change things, that didn't seem likely. So the only explanation that made sense was that she was supposed to guide Max through the future.

It would mean the end of the world, but it would also give them the chance of life beyond it. The flock's lives were full of humans trying to use and manipulate them like unfeeling tools. It didn't mean they deserved to die; thinking that they did would make her just as bad as they were. But it _did_ mean that the idea of an Earth full of hybrids who didn't have to hide who they truly were sounded, at least on paper, sort of utopic.

But Angel couldn't get them there alone; she would need Max's cooperation. And she and Jeb both knew that, when it came to major flock decisions, Max never listened to anyone except for Fang. There was no way she would ever agree to follow Angel, even if the younger girl told her about the visions. In her mind, Angel would always be her baby, sweet and naïve and innocent. One day, she might be able to convince Max to treat her as an equal, but that might be another several years yet; she couldn't wait that long.

 _And Max is making mistakes_ now _,_ Angel whined to herself. _She's going about it all the wrong way._

Jeb was trying to prepare Max for what was coming by giving her hints but making her piece things together herself. That was good; Max had never been one to accept something as fact without understanding the reasons behind it. But he didn't know everything. Angel didn't want to tell him about future visions unless she had to, so there might be a time when she needed things to go in a different direction than he did.

She glanced over at Max, who was looking as determined and unflappable as ever. It seemed wrong to ferret around in her brain, but there was no other way to get through to her. If only she were to ask the rest of the flock for advice, even just every once in a while! Then Angel would have been able to put the thought into her mind some other way. But Max didn't _do_ open and heartfelt. She could work towards certain death without so much as breaking a sweat, and she was so used to putting on a brave face that it was almost as if she didn't know how to be any other way. That was fine – it was part of what they all loved about her – but good leaders had to be open to listening to their team. And Max would never do that unless Angel showed her that she had to.

Heart beating extra fast with nerves, she carefully projected her thoughts into the other girl's mind. Max stiffened, but her reply wasn't hostile. It wasn't _friendly,_ but it wasn't hostile. Angel pushed the flare of guilt aside as she continued with her plan.

She didn't want to, but she had to. It was as simple as that.


End file.
